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Our team of over 18,000 Springspotters sources the latest innovation, startup, and new business ideas from around the world. View today's best innovationsTue, 26 Sep 2017 16:31:22 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.2Bee backpacks help scientists track and research movementshttps://www.springwise.com/bee-backpacks-help-scientists-track-research-movements/
https://www.springwise.com/bee-backpacks-help-scientists-track-research-movements/#respondTue, 26 Sep 2017 05:15:34 +0000https://www.springwise.com/?p=158478The miniature tracking device developed by researchers at Bangor University aims to shed light on what is affecting the falling numbers of bees.

Researchers from Bangor University in Wales are nearing completion on their ‘backpacks’ made for bees, which act as a tracking device. This will enable scientists to learn more about where the bees collect nectar and what might be affecting their numbers. The lightweight, long-range device will be powered through the bee’s own electrical energy, with a small drone following its whereabouts and movements. The next stage of the tracking device development will be to test the devices on bees in a poly tunnel, and the ecologist and microsystems engineer behind the innovation hope to carry this out in coming months.

Existing bee monitoring devices are limited in their ability due to weight, range, and how long their power source lasts. The ability to track insects in their wide-spanning foraging range will be useful in a multitude of relevant circumstance; neonicotinoids and other insecticides, for example, affect the bee’s navigation skills and tracking them over long distances can help researchers discover how the insecticides are affecting their direction finding. Other uses for the ‘backpacks’ include tracking Asian hornets in Europe, which are a serious threat to many bee species, so they can be controlled or eradicated to prevent damage to the bee population.

The initial project is funded as a Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) Programme. The partner organisation is the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association (BIBBA), who are keen to fund research into honey-bee tracking in temperate environments to identify the foraging range of the bee under differing climatic and environmental conditions.

While an automated pollination robot has been created to support bees, this isn’t the only way the technology and insect worlds have collided. Insects are being used to inspire the workings of some of the most innovative creations on the market, such as a new structure for solar panel cells that take inspiration from the eyes of insects themselves. How else could minute tracking devices such as that created by Bangor University help keep wildlife thriving?

]]>https://www.springwise.com/bee-backpacks-help-scientists-track-research-movements/feed/0Old prison becomes new eco city neighborhoodhttps://www.springwise.com/old-prison-becomes-new-eco-city-neighborhood/
https://www.springwise.com/old-prison-becomes-new-eco-city-neighborhood/#respondTue, 26 Sep 2017 05:10:13 +0000https://www.springwise.com/?p=158696Amsterdam’s Bijlmerbajes prison will be redeveloped into a car-free, mixed-use district that focuses on community, recycling and reuse.

A team of architects drawn from three companies – OMA, FABRICations and LOLA – will begin redevelopment of Amsterdam’s Bijlmerbajes prison complex in 2018. Built in the 1970s on the outskirts of the city, the site has since been enveloped by urban growth, making it a far more central location than it had previously been. The finished neighborhood will be called the “Bajes Kwartier” and will be home to a variety of public and private spaces, including affordable rental apartments, luxury condominiums, an urban vertical park and farm, arts and health centers, a school and a restaurant.

The expansion of the 7.5 hectare site will focus on community, recycling and reuse, with a goal of finding new purpose for 98 per cent of the existing building materials. All the structures in the updated complex will be energy-neutral (running on a mix of wind, solar and compost), and new pedestrian and bike paths and bridges will help make the space nearly car-free.

Some of the buildings in the prison complex have already been put to use as part of a new ideas hub helping to integrate refugees and long-time residents of the city. Projects finding new ways to use old or unused materials and spaces encompass everything from on-demand removal services to temporary affordable housing. Is bespoke production the most useful way to reduce leftovers and waste? And if so, how could the idea be adapted to specific areas of business?

]]>https://www.springwise.com/old-prison-becomes-new-eco-city-neighborhood/feed/0Autonomous technology is extended to self-delivering carshttps://www.springwise.com/autonomous-technology-extended-self-delivering-cars/
https://www.springwise.com/autonomous-technology-extended-self-delivering-cars/#respondTue, 26 Sep 2017 05:04:31 +0000https://www.springwise.com/?p=158575A new software could see cars driving themselves off the assembly line and through the logistics chain.

Around the globe, producing cars is big business, with approximately 80 million cars being made every year. Manufacturing vehicles is costly, with the need to drive them throughout the process, from the production line, right through to making their way onto the forecourt in dealerships ready for customers.

Driverless cars are not a new concept and the transport industry is already making headway with the use of the first phase of the technology in trains and buses in countries like the UK. Swedish tech giant Semcon are now creating an evolution of the software which will see cars not only driving themselves off the assembly line, but also to the shipping area, on and off lorries and throughout the transportation chain. In addition to updated software, Born to Drive could also be added to modern vehicles, meaning if successful, it could be implemented in existing plants and cars. It is hoped that it will soon be able to handle more complex maneuvers while controlling and tracking the entire logistics flow of the vehicles. The company says it will even be able to tell if the fuel tank needs topping up.

Born to Drive is a collaborative project between technology companies, government agencies, component manufacturers and Volvo Cars, with Semcon having overall technical responsibility for the development of control algorithms, and vehicle positioning and communication with the traffic routing system.

Sweden is already home to another innovation which could revolutionise the haulage industry. Einride developed an e-truck concept that can drive up to 200 kilometres on a single charge, whilst carrying 20 tons of cargo. Like Born to Drive, this innovation could save vast amounts on drivers and save time transporting goods. Could driverless transport be used in other industries to save money and time? and could this be the start of more 24-hour automated services that no longer need people at the helm as a result?

Benjamin Brush has been designed by the technology company BleepBleeps, and is a smart toothbrush created for the whole family that makes brushing teeth more fun with the aid of music and games. Users are able to download their favourite tracks from the BleepBleeps Music Store, and then the track will play for two minutes – which is dentists’ minimum recommended time for brushing.

The toothbrush links to a free app that monitors the brushing habits of the whole family. Each brusher earns points based on how long and how frequently they brush, making it a competitive experience and therefore encouraging younger brushers to clean their teeth more often. “As a parent, I know it’s difficult to get kids to brush properly – or even at all,” says BleepBleeps’ founder, Tom Evans. “We made Benjamin Brush to get everyone more excited for brushing their teeth and to encourage good brushing habits.”

Benjamin Brush has two different brush heads to choose from, but both are made from soft, hygienic silicone bristles that should last around a year each. Touted as the first toothbrush with an integrated music store, Benjamin Brush is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter and is hoping to be released in March 2018. BleepBleeps have been making innovative products for some time now, but do you think they’ve missed a gap in the market somewhere? How can technology further encourage healthy habits?

An art collective from Berlin called Raubdruckerin (which translates to ‘pirate printer’) have been travelling around Europe adding ink to manhole covers, tiles and grates to create on-the-spot printing presses. They then transfer the patterns to T-shirts and bags to sell online.

Apart from creating the design itself, the philosophy behind Raubdruckerin is to make people take a closer look at the beauty in the city they are living in or visiting. A crowd always gathers when they’re producing the designs, and Raubdruckerin even host screen printing workshops, where you can try out the process for yourself. The group are mindful to always use certified organic materials, and the ink used is 100 percent environmentally friendly.

Cities that Raubdruckerin have already visited include Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Paris and Lisbon, and they have plans to take their unique screen printing collective to Vienna, Budapest and Prague. All their designs are available to view and buy on their shop page, but you might be in for a bit of a wait. As the printing is all done in very small batches and the demand is so high, they tend to sell out of stock very quickly. You can also follow their progress through their Facebook page here.

Somebody else who’s using an urban environment to create original art is the Italian design company Carlo Ratti Associati, who use drones and an app to help create large murals far cheaper and quicker than they could with scaffolding. What other way can you think of that the city could be used for artistic projects?

The computer on your desktop has a memory made up of binary digits (bits), with each bit always in one of two definite states – 0 or 1. Quantum computers, however, aren’t limited to just two states, instead, they use atoms to encode information as quantum bits (qubits), each of which can be in several states simultaneously. Because the qubits can contain multiple states at the same time, a quantum computer can perform many calculations at once, making them potentially millions of times more powerful than today’s most powerful computers.

While quantum computers have been developed in engineering laboratories, there are many issues which keep the costs high, such as the need to develop new ways to cool the computers. Most daunting, however, is that the qubits on the chips must be placed very precisely, just 10-20 nanometers (50 atoms) apart – making them very expensive and time-consuming to produce. Now, a new quantum chip design has been developed by engineers working at the University of New South Wales-based ARC Center of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T) which allows the qubits to be placed hundreds of nanometers apart. The design was conceived by a team led by CQC2T researchers Guilherme Tosi and Andrea Morello, in collaboration with a team at Purdue University. Explained Morello: “What Guilherme and the team have invented is a new way to define a ‘spin qubit’ that uses both the electron and the nucleus of the atom.” Where previous quantum computers required either very precise placing of qubits, or were very large, this new design could allow quantum computers to be built at a price and size that is commercially viable.

The CQC2T team has struck a AUD 83 million deal between funders and the Australian government to develop a prototype silicon quantum integrated circuit by 2022 – the first step in building the world’s first silicon-based quantum computer. In August, the new partners launched Silicon Quantum Computing Pty Ltd, Australia’s first quantum computing company, to advance the development and commercialisation of this unique technology. We have already seen quantum technology can improve scientific study. How might affordable quantum computing change the face of commercial computing and technology?

]]>https://www.springwise.com/new-design-makes-possible-large-scale-manufacture-quantum-chips/feed/0Smartphone game helps bereaved young people cope with deathhttps://www.springwise.com/smartphone-game-helps-bereaved-young-people-cope-death/
https://www.springwise.com/smartphone-game-helps-bereaved-young-people-cope-death/#respondFri, 22 Sep 2017 05:30:16 +0000https://www.springwise.com/?p=158547Game based on enchanting island has been designed to help families grieve and develop emotional resilience.

A smartphone game designed to help bereaved young people and their families has launched, receiving 40 percent of its GBP 30,000 crowdfunding target within 48 hours of sharing on platform Indiegogo. The game, Apart of Me, is a non-profit resource designed by a child psychotherapist and his London-based team at Bounce Works.

The game is based on an enchanted island, which acts as a safe space that the young person can explore whenever they want. The player is supported on the island by an Oracle, who acts as their wise guide. The game’s narrative is based on the hero’s journey and when the main character is experiencing a tragic event, the best way to grow from this is to learn certain skills that will allow the user to turn suffering into wisdom that can be shared with others. There are four zones to the game: The cave, which represents wisdom and is a mysterious place for catching fireflies, exploring emotions and hearing user stories from other young people; message in a bottle, representing connection, which encourages a bond and opening up to parents and close ones; the waterfall, where peace can be found; and perspectives on death, where the subject is openly explored.

Whilst interaction within the game is a key component of the experience, the game also contains intuitive mechanics encouraging young people to connect offline in meaningful ways with their families and friends, using the tools and skills they have acquired while playing. A core principle of the Bounce Works design philosophy is using digital technology to encourage face-to-face human connection.

There has been a spike in the use of gaming for medical and therapeutic purposes, with a virtual reality game helping Alzheimer’s research and a gaming system that helps boost the feel-good factor with exercise coming to the market in recent months. How have smartphone apps helped your wellbeing?

In 1991 Hypercolor became popular with t-shirts made using thermochromic pigments, which change from colored to colorless at certain temperatures. As the wearer’s body temperature went up or down, the t-shirt changed color. Sadly, the company making the shirts could not keep up with demand and declared bankruptcy after only a year in business. Other garment manufacturers, such as American Apparel have since experimented with special effect clothing using thermochromic dyes, but they have never caught on with the same intensity as the hypercolor t-shirts. Now, Italian men’s clothing maker Stone Island has developed an updated and fashionable version of color-changing clothing with its Ice Knit line of sweaters.

Stone Island’s sweaters are woven in two layers, with the outer layer containing thermochromic yarn and the inner later made from 100 percent wool. The thermochromic yarns are made by blending color-changing pigments with normal textile pigments. As the external temperature warms, the thermochromic pigments in the yarn become increasingly transparent, while the normal pigments retain their original color. The result is a sweater that changes color as the temperature changes. For example, if yellow normal pigment is mixed with red thermochromic ink, the result is a dye that is constantly shifting from yellow to orange as the temperature changes, creating a unique three dimensional effect.

Clothing that incorporates technology in various ways has proven popular, from a “coded-dress” which turns personal data into patterns, to winter shirts that incorporate heating pads. Although Stone Island is creating only a limited number of the thermochromic garments, will their stylish colors and sophisticated design lead to a resurgence in the market for special effect clothing?

One of the less obvious sources of biofuel currently being researched involves harnessing the power of algae, which we recently covered being used as a fuel for a wooden motorcycle, and in France another potential use for the versatile organisms is being tested — carbon capture.

The project is a collaboration between Fermentalg and SUEZ, both France-based, and aims to improve air-quality on two fronts: cleaning pollutants from localized areas and providing an alternative to fossil fuel reliance (thereby reducing future ‘dirty’ fuel output). The project has seen the micro algae (large water-filled objects with the green algae inside) placed inside a huge column resembling the famous Morris column at a busy intersection in the 14th arrondissement in Paris. The green urban furniture harnesses the power of the algal biomass to capture the carbon pollutants produced by the thousands of vehicles that travel by daily. The algae are microscopic organisms that use photosynthesis like plants in a process that uses up carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. The energy from this reaction can then be used to drive the second phase of the project: after the algal population has grown and transformed that carbon dioxide into useful biomass for a few months, the algae themselves can then be used to produce clean energy by entering sewage treatment facilities and being transformed into natural gases. The whole process simply requires a column filled with water and algae, with the algal photosynthesis driven naturally by the sun each of which, Fermentalg claim, will be capable of capturing the same amount of carbon as a hundred trees per year. If tests this year prove successful, more columns will be deployed in urban centres soon.

So algae is a versatile source of innovation — even when algal blooms take over streams, an often deadly process for other organisms, one company we’ve covered is removing that algae and making shoes out of them. Where else could we see the power of these microorganisms being used in business?

The Japanese startup Vaqso has secured funding to invest in the mass production of its VR headset add-on device Vaqso VR, which creates scents for headset wearers relevant to what they are seeing. The funding from Weru Investment totalling USD 600,000 will help the product reach the wider, global consumer market.

The compact wireless device shoots out relevant smells based on the VR contents, amplifying the gaming experience and making it even more realistic – smells created during the demo phase included fried chicken and gunpowder smoke. The small device is as thin and small as a Snickers® chocolate bar, approximately 12cm long and 3cm thick, and weighs just 50g. Its battery power lasts for two hours, and is chargeable using a micro USB cable. The scent-fuelling device is compatible to be mounted on to various type of VR headsets, and with odours lasting one month at present. The device will also allow users to regulate smell intensity according to their location within the VR environment. The add-on is expected to hit the mass market in 2018.

Virtual reality has become so popular in the past three years that it has entered the mainstream market for both consumers and businesses. The function has helped in the medical sector, allowing those with Alzheimer’s to help fuel research by playing a connected game, and VR has even assisted travellers plan their next getaway with virtual tours of prospective holiday destinations. How could multi-sensory virtual reality be used by brands to influence purchasing behaviour?